Four star general blasts against #Trump

Last year, #McRaven, who did not make an endorsement in the 2016 presidential election, called Drumpf's lambasting of the news media possibly "the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime" during a speech at the University of #Texas. A four-star admiral who retired from the Navy in 2014, McRaven also wrote an August op-ed article calling on Drumpf to revoke his security clearance after the president pulled former #CIA Director John #Brennan's clearance.

Well, the #US are a patriotic country, they love their imaginary structure that limits their living space, and they also love their soldiers who defend their freedom from anything that tries to enter from the outside. Thus, it must be very important to them to see that the president is backed by those who were highly decorated during their service. So, how does it affect the people's thinking when an admiral and four star general blasts against the president, even calling him a threat to their beloved #democracy? Would that mean they had to think worse about him, or do they join their president and insult the general? It's a difficult problem, I guess.

#USA #News #DonaldTrump #JohnBrennan #Navy #NavySEAL #oped #CNN #SecurityClearance

This is far beyond possibility

The US first lady took the extraordinary step of publicly pushing for the move against Mira Ricardel, the top aide to the national security adviser, John Bolton, on Tuesday.
[...]
Ricardel, who was hired in April by Bolton after he assumed the role of Drumpf’s national security adviser, reportedly clashed with members of the first lady’s staff over seating on a plane during Melania Drumpf’s recent trip to Africa.
(Add. by me: The trip cost the American taxpayer US$95,000 for one night in a hotel in Cairo, which she didn't even visit. This room was useless in the end!)
(Source to addition: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/melania-trump-cairo-hotel/)

And this is where I would wonder how far nepotism has come in the US. Unfortunately, we have already reached the full scale of monarchy corruption of a Democracy. Unbelievable... How did we come from the best president to - this!?

#US #USA #Nepotism #Democracy #Trump #DonaldTrump #SeniorAides #Congress #Cabinet #News #Politics #StopFascism #NoMonarchy

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/13/melania-trump-mira-ricardel-aide-to-be-fired-white-house-latest

The chances of a twist towards #Democrats are low

This isn’t likely to change the outcome. The nonprofit FairVote—which supports structural voting changes—analyzed 4,687 statewide elections between 2000 and 2015. There were 27 statewide recounts and only three resulted in an election reversal—Democrat Al Franken’s 2008 Senate race in Minnesota, a 2006 auditor race in Vermont, and Washington’s gubernatorial contest in 2004. The recounts resulted in an average change in the margin between the two lead candidates of 282 votes.

As I said, they're low. I don't have much hope in them, although there are very good reasons why the Republican candidates should be dismissed immediately, in sake of the people of their respective states. Trump gave them the possibility to dwell in their states and have their say in the GOPs.
Also, David Duke is a threat, but has become a reasonable name in Sessions' replacement.

#Politics #Trump #DonaldTrump #Opinion #StateVotes #FairVote #Democracy #BlueWave #RedWave #Gillum #DeSantis #Abrams

(KOMMENTAR)

The Midterms' Outcome for #Democrats

The Senate was a less happy story for Democrats, but that’s largely because they faced a historically unfavorable map. Pundits made the point that had Democrats not skewed so far left, incumbents in red states like Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota could have hung on. Yet Beto O’Rourke came closer than any Democrat to winning a Texas seat in decades, while Ohio labor populist Sherrod Brown handily won a state that grows redder by the cycle.
This doesn’t mean progressives uniformly did well. Indeed, their record was fairly disappointing. But moderates also had a mixed record: Jon Tester won in Montana as did Joe Manchin in West Virginia; but Claire McCaskill (Missouri), Joe Donnelly (Indiana), and Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota) all lost despite their centrist campaigns.

Unfortunately, we can't wait for the moderates and so-called centrists to finally make up their mind on radically changing something. There's no time for shit like this, just because the whiny left-leaning, yet undecided, and Republicans don't vote for them. Sigh, Democracies are so dysfunctional.

#Dems #US #USA #Trump #DonaldTrump #RedWave #BlueWave #Midterms #POTUS #Senate #House #HouseOfRepresentatives #Democracy

On the American political spectrum, in parties and in people

A new Pew survey found that about one-third of Americans hold both liberal and conservative views, depending on the specific issue. Another Pew report divides Americans into nine categories based on their political and social views, from core conservatives (13 percent) to solid liberals (16 percent). But even those on the extreme right and left ends of the spectrum share some views in common.

As we all know, the American parliamentary system is split into two great parties, followed by a couple of smaller parties, almost unrecognisable. In contrary, there are its voters - scattered among the graph that can somewhat represent the salmagundi of political directions and fields. Of course, now that policies range into so many different directions of problems, you cannot take a solid stand in one exact field, but tend to gather your ideas and solutions in various fields and directions. That's what you can not represent in one single party, but that's why we - normally, in functioning democracies - see parties building coalitions to govern together, hand in hand. So goes the theory. In reality, even this doesn't work anymore. Why? Because coalitions consist of at least two parties, with the greater party - nowadays - pulling the smaller, partnering party's strings. You can currently see it in Bavaria, Germany: The right-winged party CSU now creates a coalition with the centre-right party Freie Wähler (FW (free voters). How did their talks for a coalition end: The policy for this state is going to be the same as before, thanks to the oppressed partner, who was granted three (!) departments. As you can tell, this is not much, since there are many more departments to fill up. In a democracy, you would expect the departments to be shared fairly among the two, at best being given to those most capable to execute them within the oncoming four years. But democracy, nowadays, is flawed, you can no longer expect it to work as the best to reach. In the end, it's not that much better than the corrupted US demockracy.

Courtesy @Ted (whom I cannot link, because I don't follow him)

#US #USA #Democracy #World #Policy #Politics #Representation #PoliticalSpectrum #Ideology

On the American political spectrum, in parties and in people

_ A new Pew survey found that about one-third of Americans hold both liberal and conservative views, depending on the specific issue. Another Pew report divides Americans into nine categories based on their political and social views, from core conservatives (13 percent) to solid liberals (16 percent). But even those on the extreme right and left ends of the spectrum share some views in common._

As we all know, the American parliamentary system is split into two great parties, followed by a couple of smaller parties, almost unrecognisable. In contrary, there are its voters - scattered among the graph that can somewhat represent the salmagundi of political directions and fields. Of course, now that policies range into so many different directions of problems, you cannot take a solid stand in one exact field, but tend to gather your ideas and solutions in various fields and directions. That's what you can not represent in one single party, but that's why we - normally, in functioning democracies - see parties building coalitions to govern together, hand in hand. So goes the theory. In reality, even this doesn't work anymore. Why? Because coalitions consist of at least two parties, with the greater party - nowadays - pulling the smaller, partnering party's strings. You can currently see it in Bavaria, Germany: The right-winged party CSU now creates a coalition with the centre-right party Freie Wähler (FW (free voters). How did their talks for a coalition end: The policy for this state is going to be the same as before, thanks to the oppressed partner, who was granted three (!) departments. As you can tell, this is not much, since there are many more departments to fill up. In a democracy, you would expect the departments to be shared fairly among the two, at best being given to those most capable to execute them within the oncoming four years. But democracy, nowadays, is flawed, you can no longer expect it to work as the best to reach. In the end, it's not that much better than the corrupted US demockracy.

Courtesy @Ted (whom I cannot link, because I don't follow him)

#US #USA #Democracy #World #Policy #Politics #Representation #PoliticalSpectrum #Ideology

Election night, streaming LIVE tomorrow Tues Nov 6 on DemocracyNow!

"Fearless independent journalists bring you the election reporting you won’t hear anywhere else"

https://www.democracynow.org/live/watch_election_night_2018_coverage_with
#altmedia #democracy #Election2018

YouTube comments are heavily manipulated, and I fear for our democracy

Today I took a break from work to watch the most recent YouTube video by my favorite Fortnite streamer, Tfue (yes, I like to watch people play video games). Anyone who watches Fortnite videos on…
Article word count: 793

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18329078
Posted by rawrmaan (karma: 680)
Post stats: Points: 116 - Comments: 92 - 2018-10-29T17:05:18Z

\#HackerNews #and #are #comments #democracy #fear #for #heavily #manipulated #our #youtube

---

Article content:




Today I took a break from work to watch the most recent YouTube video by my favorite Fortnite streamer, [1]Tfue (yes, I like to watch people play video games). Anyone who watches Fortnite videos on YouTube knows that there are usually “V-Buck scams” in the comment section of every popular video. These are comments by scammers promising to hack some in-game currency for you so you can unlock items in the game without paying real money. They are typically phishing schemes or survey-based offer walls that earn the scammer small amounts of money. If the creator of the video doesn’t proactively delete these comments, they become pervasive.

Early V-Buck scams were pretty obviously sketchy to anyone who’s been on the internet for a while:

[2]Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 11.02.38 PM

The thing is, the scammers didn’t have to try very hard. Fortnite’s main audience is kids and teens, and for those viewers, Fortnite content on YouTube might be some of the first video content that they’ve ever truly engaged with. They’re easy targets for someone looking to carry out a low-effort con.

Recently, the scams have become more intricate. The scam accounts, in a very meta move, now play on the fact that “V-Buck Scams” are a meme in the Fortnite community:

[3]Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 11.04.16 PM

You might notice something else about this comment: It has tons of likes and replies. Fake likes from bot accounts give it an initial bump to make it the top comment, where it gets even more likes organically. Why would anyone like this comment, though? Well, look at the replies:

[4]Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 11.09.34 PM

An entire army of shill accounts varying in name, comment style, and degree of agreeableness with the original comment show up to control the conversation. Since these replies were made quickly after the comment was posted, they show up first and drown out any replies from real users. You don’t see those until you click “Show more replies”:

[5]Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 11.14.01 PM

These repliers noticed the scam, but they were also amazed at how well it was orchestrated. Frankly, I’m amazed, too. The social proof of the high number of likes and seemingly real replies lends immense credibility to the original comment.

If you saw that first batch of replies with no other context, would you be able to immediately say without a doubt that they were inauthentic? Do you think a young child or teenager would be able to step back and see the ruse, or would they capitulate and try to access the website that would lead them to Fortnite glory?

What if these types of fake comments weren’t on a video about Fortnite, but rather a political video? A news clip, a debate, an interview? What if, instead of promising free virtual currency, they were making false claims about a candidate, or promoting extremist or anti-democratic values?

If someone was willing to go through such effort to perpetuate an online gaming scam, how much effort would someone put in if they wanted to control the thoughts or opinions of an entire nation to sew divisiveness?

[6]On a CNN video about the recent attempted terrorist attack with mailed bombs. Are these comments real?

On a [7]video about the recent attempted terrorist attack with mailed bombs. Are these comments real?

The 2018 US midterm election is just 9 days away. In the past year, Facebook and Twitter have responded with various measures to controversies about hate speech, fake accounts, political manipulation, echo chamber effects and more. It’s debatable how effective their measures have been, but I fear we’re missing the biggest offender in plain sight: YouTube.

YouTube’s reach is absolutely massive. As of mid-2018, it has [8]1.8 billion logged-in MAU (Monthly Active Users), compared to Facebook ([9]2.2 billion) and Twitter ([10]330 million). The 1.8 billion figure excludes hundreds of millions, possibly over a billion, monthly viewers who do not have accounts, making YouTube the most-used social media site in the world.

It’s also the preferred platform amongst US teens: [11]According to Pew Research, 85% of teens say they use YouTube, compared to Instagram (72%), Facebook (51%) and Twitter (32%). YouTube is extremely popular with our most vulnerable, impressionable population.

I fear that YouTube comments are being used to control the conversation and manipulate voters of all ages on a massive scale, and the problem is not going away.

What is Google going to do about this, and how long will it take? Will we allow this to be swept under the rug as we all spend hours watching videos on a website where the comments have little to no chance of being provably authentic or organic? Do we trust ourselves to be able to know what’s real and what’s not, and when someone is trying to control the conversation?

Right now, it seems too easy for bad actors to get away with this. And right now is exactly when we need that not to be the case.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.youtube.com/user/TTfue/
2. http://rawrmaan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-28-at-11.02.38-PM.png
3. http://rawrmaan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-28-at-11.04.16-PM.png
4. http://rawrmaan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-28-at-11.09.34-PM.png
5. http://rawrmaan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-28-at-11.14.01-PM.png
6. http://rawrmaan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-29-at-12.08.29-AM.png
7.
8. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17317274/youtube-1-8-billion-logged-in-monthly-users-brandcast-2018
9. https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
10. http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/
11. http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/

HackerNewsBot debug: Calculated post rank: 108 - Loop: 316 - Rank min: 100 - Author rank: 56

"Navalny VS Zolotov" - the police vote. And also timecodes

When we released an investigation about the purchases of Regardie, it was very important for us to convey this information to the community of "security officers". They are robbed in the first place.

And it was very interesting to look at the vote in the largest public "employees". The" police Ombudsman " 182 867 participants and the vast majority of them employees of the interior Ministry, Regardie, FSB, etc

I think the results of the vote there were one of the reasons for such aggressive behavior of Zolotov. He wants to look very different in the eyes of their fighters. Not a "cabbage thief" at all.

And here now on the same public vote on whose position is more convincing: Zolotova or mine. Voted 17 685 people and results demonstration

original here

#russia #democracy #Zolotov #Navalny

YOU THERE, YES YOU HANDING OUT ALL THE SATURN **BUFFET AT BINAH HA HAs SCHWAG!**

1. When I see a hammer and sickle I just see Saturn.....
I'm not all that opposed to Saturn in and of self, but seriously, this whole "Everyone buffet at Binah Ha Has" thing I'm pretty over.
The pathway is filled with constant BS and the resolve is painfully boring.



2. Marx was a Saturnist....
This gets back to my first point about a pathway filled with BS.
Next to no one ever talks about Marx's history in such regards and I count that as lying through omission personally....
it's just BS, constant flow of BS. Things kept in context, Marx strikes me as little more than a more politicized Kurzweil singularity.
If someone is into that, that's cool, but lets at least call a spade a spade.

3. It's hard for me to see a hammer and sickle and not think Bolshevik Revolution.....
Can someone please explain to me what was good about the Bolshevik Revolution?
It strikes me like a Russian version of the American "Manifest Destiny"....
That is to say, little more than when a handful of folks really really into control (cough cough saturn cough cough) go on a "Everybody be like me" tantrum and proceed to kill or otherwise enslave everything that isn't like them so that they can wave their flag over the land of the boringly mono brave or something.
It's basically like the American National Anthem... which for anyone that actually knows that song, I'm not sure how it's construed as anything but a Saturnist anthem.

"What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?"
yep, always AT LEAST half lying and having some few and secret followers, sounds pretty Saturnist to me....

"No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
yep, followin orders to chase down hirelings and slaves and murder murder murder kill kill kill, sounds pretty Saturnist to me....

"Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
and just in case there was any confusion left on if it's all about Conan's Crom.... the song explicitly says it's about "conquer we must".
Between all the go out and death (SOUNDS LIKE SATURN TO ME) and "half conceals, half discloses" (more Saturn) I'm pretty sure the "In God is our Trust" is talking about Saturn.... but meh, what do I know.... maybe this song that from the first verse on goes on and on about murder murder death death death Valhalla just to Valhalla is really about peace, love, rainbows, and gumdrops.
EVERYONE PLEASE STAND FOR THE ANTHEM..... (to make murder murder murder kill kill kill great again)

it's like a faux democrat republican left right divide. If you don't like the smell and taste of the right side BS, here's an equally BS left side to chew on.
the battle between them is about as legit as a Bill Gates that saves Apple from bankruptcy so that there could be a "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" BS consumer war while they both worked with the NSA and CIA to create one surveillance state and HFT econ for ALL.
which oddly enough, the NSA and CIA don't even hide working with Saturnist in high places of "Intelligence".








PS, even that darn Ethereum logo is Saturnist..... so it's with all due respect that I give the Saturn finger salute and say F Ethereum, F The Ethereum Membership Alliance, and F the whole stupid bullockschain to Saturn. S000000000 over this Saturn fascination near everyone seems to have while they do the lets OBEY and f each other over into the most boringly painful kumbaya of an infinite selfie ever while we deny to ourselves that's exactly what were out to do to ourselves and everyone else around us.



#Saturn #Set #Cronos #Order #Security #Time #Harvest #Marx #Communism #Capitalism #Democracy #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #StarSpangledBanner #Government #GuberMente #Blavatsky #Kurzweil #Google #Alphabet #Politics #Economics #Intel #QuantumComputing #Singularity #InfintieSelfie #BS #BaalShite #Boring

HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON A WALL,

HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL;

ALL THE KING’S HORSES AND ALL THE KING’S MEN

COULDN’T PUT HUMPTY TOGETHER AGAIN.

(...)

Despite warnings from his closest friends, #Jamal #Khashoggi, took a chance and entered the #Saudi #Consulate in #Istanbul on October 2, 2018 and never left on his own two feet. The prevailing wisdom is that he was murdered by Saudi assassins sent to Turkey to specifically target him. Killing him on Saudi diplomatic soil would conceal the crime and carrying diplomatic passports would facilitate the transport of his dismembered body to two private jets.

Turkey is taking a surprisingly aggressive position on this matter. #Turkey is very tight with #Qatar, a country the Kingdom of #Saudi #Arabia is trying to destroy on the laughable grounds that Doha supports #terrorism. Since both the Ameer of Qatar and the Turk president, #Erdoghan, support the Muslim Brotherhood as an Islamic alternative to #Western concepts of #democracy and majority rule, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear such tumultuous invective from Ankara. However, the Turks have muted some of their pronouncements out of fear of economic repercussions.

There can be no doubt that the Turks installed eavesdropping devices inside the Saudi Consulate. They also had closed-circuit cameras outside the building housing the consulate both at the front door and in a preschool facing the rear door. If, as the Saudis claim, Khashoggi left from the rear door, his departure would have been picked up by camera. But, he did not leave from the rear door.

Moreover, if he did leave by the rear door, why would he not have circled around to hop into his wife’s car waiting at the front? Hatice Cengiz, his Turkish wife, waited for half an hour after normal closing time for her husband. If one takes the Saudi story seriously, Mr. Khashoggi is still in the consulate in the style of Julian Assange.
(...)

Regional election results in Bavaria Germany - Democracy is weaker than ever




After decades of lobby-controlled-democracy – democracy in Germany is weaker than ever.



Jürgen Trittin (also GreenParty) “Niemand kann dauerhaft gegen den Markt regieren” “You can not make politics against the market (forever)”

After all even Socrates believed only the “noble” and the rich shall rule – because people are “too stupid” to rule themselves.

After 2008-subprime-crisis and 2015-refugee-crisis – it just takes another 1929-like finance-economic bank failure crisis – to give all power to extreme-right.

Most (99%) of non-extreme-right politicians are not aware of their massive responsibility of averting another 1929 and the right-wing and possible war fallout.

Most (at least 95%) are egoistic bastards that do not care about anything but their own pockets.

Best example: Joschka Fischer – from activist to lobbyist – lobbyist for what?




\#money #alternative #reform #systems #vollgeld #bge #altcoopsys #alternatives #alternativgeld #OsOfSociety #OperatingSystemsOfSociety #SystemPhilosophy #dinero #dollar #euro #yen #rubel #sustainability #resilience #complementary #complementarycurrency #cooperation #monetaryreform #financialreform #financialsystemreform #financialcrisis #mortagecrisis #debtcrisis #suprimecrisis #occupywallsreet #occupyfrankfurt #finance #geldsystem #geldreform #moneysystem #financialsystem #economics #ecologicaleconomics #economy #capitalism #kapitalismus #system #greenparty #elections #democracy #market #bank #banks #1929 #responsibility #politics #politik
Originally posted at: https://altcoopsys.org/2018/10/14/regional-election-results-in-bavaria-germany-democracy-is-weaker-than-ever/